One thing that is often overlooked when it comes to getting fit is how to recover from muscle soreness. I am guilty of this myself. We all concentrate our fitness efforts on getting to the gym and working out, doing our cardio and our Team or semi-private training, or our own workouts. We push our bodies hard, but we don’t give a lot of thought about helping our body recover when our muscles are sore.

Here are 7 tips to help you recover from muscle soreness.

Active recovery:

Go for a leisurely walk for an active rest day to get the lactic acid that has built up around your muscles moving.  The WORST thing to do is lie or sit around all day.

Hydrate:

I know you hear this time and time again, but muscles are largely composed of water and rely on hydration to function and recovery.  Aim for at least 4 liters per day every day.

Use a foam roller on the sore areas:

The stimulus of the roller against the muscles can give a great deep but controlled massage to relive tension.  I find this to be especially useful for my lower body- calves, quads, glutes and hip flexors.

Stretch or do yoga:

One thing to try when your muscles are super-duper sore is hot yoga.  Not only does the stretch feel great, but the heat warms up the muscles so they are more limber and can stretch more comfortably and deeply.

Get a massage:

Make a trip to see your favorite deep tissue massage therapist. A good therapist has a VERY strong touch and although the massage itself is not always comfortable, the body loves it.  a good therapist gets deep into the adhesions not only in my muscles but also fascia, tendons and ligaments that suffer from intense exercise.

Use BCAAs before and after exercise:

Glycogen stores are rapidly depleted during intense weight training sessions causing the liver to synthesize glucose by conversion of L-Alanine (one of the BCAAs).  Providing additional BCAAs during times of stress on the body helps to allow protein synthesis to continue and therefore speeds up recovery.  Supplementing with 5 grams of BCAAs before and after exercise will assist in muscle recovery.

Take L-glutamine with your post-workout meal:

Glutamine is an amino acid that is made and stored in the body.  During and after intense exercise the stores can sometimes become depleted making it difficult for the body to maintain nitrogen balance and encouraging DOMS (delayed on-set muscle soreness).   Include a heaping teaspoon of glutamine in your post workout shake to help minimize soreness.

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